THE SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

PROFESSIONAL
K PILLAY

Transportation Planning, Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

P.O. Box 6338, Pretoria, 0001
Phone: 072 219 2136, Fax: 012 328 5137, E-mail: kpillay@gpmc.org.za

Abstract

The demise of public transportation in South Africa manifests itself in practically every public
transportation study. There is continuous debate on the current public transport system, the quality
of service, the ageing infrastructure, the rationalisation processes, land use patterns, poor subsidy
targeting, poor public transport planning, operation and regulations, the funding of the
implementation of Moving South Africa (MSA)♠, and the need for an integrated public
transportation system. Frustration is setting in on skilled transportation engineers and is evident in
the number of professional transportation engineers emigrating to Europe, North America, and
Australia.

The National Land Transport Transition Act 2000 focuses on public transportation. It is significant
that many officials and consultants in South Africa contributed to this policy. However, are there
capable public transport professionals in South Africa to implement an effective and efficient public
transport system?

The common practice in South Africa is that many Civil Engineers attempted public transport
projects and through time has come to believe that they are public transport experts. Many officials
travelled to worldwide to experience public transportation in short periods and have also come to
believe that they are public transport experts too.

Transportation professionals should have post-graduate qualifications and more appropriately, from
a tertiary institution in a country like for example, the USA, where effective, and sophisticated
public transport research and implementation occurs. To implement the public transport plans for
South Africa, it is imperative to utilise or appoint learned public transport professionals.

This paper investigates the availability of capable public transport professionals in South Africa to
provide an efficient and effective public transport system in South Africa according to its policies.

1. Introduction

The demise of public transportation in South Africa manifests itself in practically every public
transportation study. There is continuous debate on the current public transport system, the quality
of service, the ageing infrastructure, the rationalisation processes, land use patterns, poor subsidy
targeting, poor public transport planning, operation and regulations, the funding of the
implementation of Moving South Africa (MSA), and the need for an integrated public
transportation system. Frustration is setting in on skilled transportation engineers and is evident in

♠
The South African Transportation Strategy leading up to 2020 (1).

20th South African Transport Conference South Africa, 16 – 20 July 2001

‘Meeting the Transport Challenges in Southern Africa’ Organised by: Conference Planners
Conference Papers Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies
the number of professional transportation engineers emigrating to Europe, North America, and
Australia.

Dickson comments on competition between bus and taxi in Cape Town at a time when violence
broke out between the operators.

“Obliged by law to run to published timetables and to charge laid-down fares, buses cannot compete
equally with the minibus-taxi, which generally runs where and when they wish. People waiting at
bus stops readily board whichever mode stops first, something easy for the taxi to contrive. Bus
drivers, earning union-negotiated wages, enjoy pension and medical funds. Provincial,
metropolitan, and city authorities claim constantly – albeit unconvincingly – that the taxi situation is
being regulated, but the taxi publicly repudiate the new provincial permit system, and they want the
local Road Transportation Board, which declines to issue permits for unroadworthy vehicles to be
staffed with people more sympathetic to their cause. Whatever happened to the notion that it is the
customer who matters in public transport? South Africans decrying breakdown of the rule of law in
nearby countries can find instructive examples much nearer home (2)!”

John Berks on Talk Radio 702 on 20 November 2000 discussed the impact of aged drivers in
private vehicles. Their discussion deduced that since there is “No Public Transport in South Africa”
older people have to drive. Is there really ‘no public transport’ or is there no efficient and effective
public transport in South Africa? If South African officials continue in conventional thinking on
public transportation, then the nation of South Africa will continue in their daily commuting
struggles, which has numerous implications on the economy of the nation.

South Africa comprises of polarised communities. In transportation planning context, there is the
minority of financially secure people with convenient transportation alternatives and there is the
majority of poor people captive to public transportation. A large portion of the monthly earnings of
poor people is used for home-based work trips by public transportation. This commute may
comprise of long hours of travel on poor infrastructure with safety concerns, and with more than
one transfer per journey. These concerns are common talk among politicians, public transport
officials like Executive Directors, Chief Planners, and transportation consultants, but little is done to
initiate a radical public transport revolution in South Africa. The intention of this paper is to
identify the desperate need for skilled transportation planners and engineers in South Africa to make
a dynamic impact on the South African transportation system.

A low proportion of lower income people is in the process of gradual financial advancement and
prefers their own motor vehicle. There is however a high proportion of captive public transport
‘patronage.’ The current philosophy in public transportation is to maintain this patronage? What
happens when urban highways are congested, cities are identified as ‘non-attainment areas♦,’ and
the value of time of commuters’ increase? These circumstances already exist in some cities in South
Africa without equally accelerated proactive programs to eliminate the problems and improve the
standard of living in South Africa.

Is the South African government accentuating the problem of a fragmented public transport system
by prematurely privatising a volatile niche market? Who gives counsel to officials of all tiers of
government especially National Government on transportation planning issues? Professional public
transport engineers and planners?

♦
Non-attainment areas is a phrase used in the USA in conjunction with the Clean Air Act Amendments to classify an
area that has reached dangerous air pollution levels, and the respective authority is illegible for public funds to
implement mitigation measures.
By painting a bleak picture of the public transport system of Sought Africa, is there hope?
Certainly! Jaime Lerner, engineer, architect, city planner, and former mayor of Curitiba, now
United Nations consultant for urban affairs, was responsible for the largest set of joint urban
changes made in a single city in the world, that made the city a world famous example of
environmentally sound solutions, including transportation solutions (3). Learner’s sentiments
follow.

“When governments think in economic terms without considering the people, tragedies happen.
When citizens feel respected in their day-to-day activities – such as going to work, educating their
children, being cared for when sick – they accept co-responsibility for the city. We felt we couldn’t
sacrifice a whole generation waiting 20 or 30 years for the necessary funds. So we looked at the
possibility of a transport system that would offer the same advantages as the subway (heavy rail):
speed, comfort, security, and frequency. We realised there was space for creativity. When we
designed the first element of our transport system – buses travelling along an exclusive lane with
stops every 500 meters – the system carried 25 000 passengers a day. We expanded and perfected
the system and now have 2 million passenger journeys a day. It was around 200 times cheaper to
build, per kilometre than a subway system and is being studied by major cities around the world.
Passengers pay a single price for a journey however many transfers they have to make. My biggest
frustration when working as a consultant is meeting so many people in major cities of the world
who don’t really believe that change is possible (3).”

The objective of this paper is to indicate the need for public transport professionals to expedite the
planning and implementation of the South African Public Transport System, to realise the Moving
South Africa strategy and the National Land Transport Transition Act.

2. Motivation

The South African people both rich and poor are still bound by the conventional public
transportation system. Currently, there are no alternatives to the increasing fuel cost neither are
there alternatives to the low standard, inefficient, and ineffective public transport system.
Commuters do not complain because they are not aware of the possible conveniences public
transportation can offer. As transportation professionals and elected officials, are we really
improving the lives of the previously (presently) disadvantaged?

The South African Transport magazine interviewed Dr Mostert of the Department of Transport
Economics at Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg (4). Dr. Mostert commented that there were
numerous conferences and seminars on public transportation and volumes of notes produced
without any tangible result. He further stated that poor leadership exacerbates the current problems
in public transportation in South Africa. The reason for poor leadership is that affirmative
candidates are placed in positions they are not yet capable of managing and there are remnants of
the ‘old guard’ waiting for their retirement. Mostert further expresses his disgust by saying that we
do not need technocrats and political appointments, but people who are serious about making public
transport work effectively. Mostert also commented that he does not want to see engineers involved
in public transport planning. Mostert also said, “I would remove the engineers from any
involvement in public transport planning (4).”

The author must opine that Mostert is partially justified on the basis that Civil Engineers and Town
Planners are self acclaimed transportation engineers, that is, these graduates are not trained at the
post-graduate level in Transportation Engineering and planning, as a result there exists unclear and
fragmented institutional arrangements. Here we discover the other problem to the demise of public
transportation in South Africa – the lack of public transportation engineering and planning skills in
a country that talks a great deal of public transportation!

The MSA 1998 also realised the need for transportation skills in all tiers of Government.

“South Africa rated worst of 46 countries in a survey of human resource development practices.
Whereas the pre-transition economy stressed labour creation in transport jobs, the new economy
that is competing globally needs transport workers with sufficient skills to create value in their
work. With nine provinces holding increasing responsibility for transport service delivery, the
capacity within Government becomes a critical potential obstacle for transport to meet the national
and customer objectives. While all provinces are experiencing technical and administrative skills
shortages and high turnover, the problem is most salient in the newly established provinces, and the
least amount of training occurs in the provinces that need it the most. As provinces gain
responsibilities, new skills are needed in the realm of land use and infrastructure planning, contract
design and management, monitoring and enforcement, and multi-modal passenger system research,
design, and support. These skills are also needed at the national level to help create and propagate
the vision and make the critical scope and density decisions (1).”

Kingma, head of Public Transport, Cape Metropolitan Council, shares similar sentiments on the
need for public transport professionals.

“The two key elements of the National Land Transport Transition Act (NLTTA) are the
establishment of Transport Authorities and the devolution of powers to the Transport Authorities.
To date local government acknowledged the importance of public transport in vision statements and
policies. However, they have shied away from implementing the vision statements and policies.
This is primarily because they don’t want to commit themselves to the costs associated with public
transport. However, there is another reason and that is, municipal engineers have virtually no
experience or training in how to deal with public transport. The problem is compounded by the fact
that there are no university or technikon training programmes, which are geared towards public
transport. The limited transportation courses, which are available, concentrate primarily on road and
traffic engineering. This is an area where the National Department of Transport needs to take the
lead and bring out experts to provide courses to build the capacity of municipal engineers in the
field of public transport (6).

It was evident in many public transport studies carried out recently (1999 – 2000) for the Pretoria
Metropolitan Council (now Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality), were not practical and workable.
In fact a major portion of many reports was actually derived out of public transport literature that
are not applicable to the current South African needs. It is necessary now to declare that South
Africa needs radical public transport solutions for immediate implementation that compliments the
ultimate implementation plan 2020 hence.

The South African Government is firmly committed to making rail a more attractive and widely
available mode of public passenger transport, concession rail operations, rationalise services in
relation to metropolitan planning for optimal mode-for-route choice, integration with other transport
modes, and empower small contractors, etc. The South African Government is not adequately
equipped with transportation skills to implement the MSA strategy with its current transportation
officials. The Minister however, mentioned that close attention is being given to building sufficient
capacity in the provincial departments of transport to manage this function in a cost effective
manner while meeting the needs of customers in a manner appropriate to market conditions (5).
3. Service Delivery

The captive public transport passenger continues in yet another struggle, congestion is in the
increase, and air quality is dissipating. Public transportation is also an applied science and unique
solutions are necessary for the South African public transportation system. South Africa needs a
public transport implementation plan within the framework of the Moving South Africa Strategy for
2020 and the NLTTA. Are we equipped for the task? Current public transport planners assume that
taxi ranks, lay-byes; colour coding of vehicles, and contracted routes is achieving a better public
transport system. Such initiatives are minuscule relative to an integrated co-ordinated Public
Transport System.

The National Department of Transport is responsible for policy development such that Provincial
and Local government implementation plans are consistent within the framework of National
policies.

Local government has a range of powers and functions defined in the Constitution, in Part B of
Schedules 4 and 5. Considering the added responsibility of Provincial and Local government where
delivery of service to the public is dispatched, it is imperative for these authorities to house
professional transportation engineers and planners. Intuitively, planning and engineering
consultants should also employ professional transportation planners and engineers since most
government authorities frequently appoint consultants to investigate and design solutions.

The powers listed in Schedule 4, over which National and Provincial governments have concurrent
legislative competence, in context, includes control of vehicle related air pollution and municipal
public transport. The powers listed in Schedule 5, over which Provincial government has exclusive
legislative competence in context includes municipal roads, noise pollution, street lighting, traffic
and parking (7).

The provincial MEC for Transport may, in agreement with the municipalities concerned, designate
a municipality or a combination of municipalities, as a transport authority (TA) for its or their
jurisdiction, to be known as a transport area. The MECs may designate Transport Authorities for the
purpose of planning, co-ordination and integration, implementation, ensuring transport law
enforcement, and monitoring and funding of land transport in the provincial and local government
spheres.

Specific duties of the TA includes the establishment of fare structures, concession fares, travel
demand management, marketing, promotion and publicity associated with the provision of transport
services, etc. Transport Authorities are yet to be established in South Africa!

4. The Way Forward

The authors of the MSA study declared that South Africa undertook to accomplish the most
ambitious, comprehensive, leading-edge work in transport strategy in many decades in any part of
the world. Patronising indeed! Developing the strategy looks difficult for sure, but the search for
competent transport engineers and planners in South Africa to develop its public transport system,
is even greater! MSA acknowledges that for co-ordination to work in land use planning and
transport regulation, all tiers of Government should improve its skilled resources and capabilities.

MSA recommends a co-ordination agenda that includes a transport alignment with training
institutions to provide for sector capacity needs and to create a talent pool for the transport sector
generally, in context, the training of transportation professionals. MSA further explains the
recommendation that to overcome critical human capacity deficiency in both private and public
sectors, the NDoT should create vehicles through which other actors can pool resources into
Centres of Excellence which will serve as the epicentre of training and distribution of specific
expertise, creating a core team of experts to leverage elsewhere in the system. For example, the
strategy can target provincial and local transport professionals into the Centres of Excellence to gain
valuable expertise and exposure before going back to their office to implement the strategy.

The implementation of this recommendation is twofold. The National Department of Transport

together with competent professionals must first establish a public transport implementation plan
for each metropolitan area, that is, the development of an efficient heavy rail system complimented
by the bus and midi-bus feeder system.

Kingma suggests in his IMIESA article that despite the lack of formal training in public transport,
municipal engineers need to move out of their comfort zones and take up the public transport
challenge. The experience gained from becoming involved will very soon compensate for the lack
of formal training (6). How? Kingma suggests that officials use public transport on a regular basis,
and should then apply engineering intuition to find solutions to improve public transport. This is
just too simplistic, since transportation planning and implementation is expansive and complex, and
certainly needs the expertise of transportation professionals.

The reason for debates and so little done is certainly due to the lack of appropriate skills in South
Africa. Are there adequate resources in South Africa to train transportation engineers and planners,
specifically in public transportation? Certainly!

Comprehensive transportation studies were always at postgraduate level. It is evident that

accelerated training in transportation studies is necessary. Environmental studies were also
traditionally studied at postgraduate level. In 1999 the University of the Wiwatersrand-
Johannesburg (Wits), offered Environmental studies at undergraduate level, in the department of
Civil Engineering. Similarly, it is possible to create a transportation curriculum at undergraduate
level at tertiary institutions especially those institutions with established transportation research
centres. The South African Institution of Civil Engineering and the National Department of
Transport should also promote this proposal for accelerated training in transportation.

Tertiary institutions in South Africa were researched on courses and postgraduate programmes in
transportation and are listed in Appendix A. The research confirms that transportation studies are
traditionally offered at postgraduate level, that is, Master of Engineering, Master of Science, and
Bachelor of Technology. However, the course list indicates the strength of South African tertiary
institutions in pavement technology and traffic engineering. It is realised that most South African
tertiary institutions are not prominent in transportation planning, mass transit design and planning,
air transportation planning and design, and marine transportation planning and design. In most
Technikon programs, public transport is included in urban planning courses; hence the study on
public transport is focused on public transport systems and not public transport planning,
operations, and management.

We are fortunate to have at least two major transportation centres at Stellenbosch University and
University of Pretoria. However, other major universities like Cape Town, Wits, Rand Afrikaans
University, and Natal Technikon are planning to start a transportation program in the near future.
Nevertheless, there is still a poor distribution of transportation centres in the country especially the
lack of training in the Northwest, Northern Province, Free State, and Mpumalanga provinces.

A brief comparison is also made with some prominent universities in the United States. Geometric
design and pavement engineering are also strengths of these transportation centres. More
appropriately, planning and public transportation are also comprehensively taught at these
universities. There are of-course large investments in public transportation research and
implementation in the United States.

The transportation profession in South Africa should learn from Europe and USA, and transform its
poverty mentality. It seems that many South African transportation planners and engineers are
complacent and do not expand their capabilities to produce workable solutions to achieve an
efficient, safe, and effective public transportation system. Neither is the transportation professional
pressuring the National Government to implement an integrated multi-modal transportation system.
Many transportation officials and planners are convinced or simply constrained due to the lack of
knowledge, that min-bus and midi-bus taxis are the future of public transportation of South Africa,
while the Minister of Transportation explicitly acknowledged in an interview on Beckett’s Trek
(magazine program on South African television) that rail should be the back-bone public transport
mode in South Africa.

In the long term the profession should motivate and inspire engineering undergraduates to opt for a
career in transportation engineering. It was observed at the South African Road Federation
conference and the South African Transport Conference, that there were very few students
attending, and very limited involvement of students at the conference.

Onsongo studied the trends on South African University and Technikon intake and graduation of
Civil Engineers from 1980 to 1999. It was deduced that Civil Engineering intake and graduation
numbers have declined. It was also discovered that there was a steady increase in Technikon Civil
engineering intake and graduates from 1994 onwards (8).
Therefore greater emphasis on promoting transportation studies should be placed at Technikons.
There is urgent need for the South African Institute of Civil Engineering to start formal student
chapters at tertiary institutions. Student chapters tend to proactively inform students on current
projects and partially prepare students for the real world of engineering. In the process, students are
encouraged into various divisions of Civil Engineering including transportation. Student members
of SAICE should attend transportation conferences and seminars at no cost.

In conclusion, without personal transformation and a professional attitude, it is not possible to

enhance democracy and achieve a better South Africa.

5. Reference:

1. Moving South Africa, Towards a Strategy for 2020, A Project of the Department of
Transport. Draft for Discussion, September 1998.
2. Dickson, R. Running the buses out of town. SA Transport Magazine, April/May 2000, p.19.
3. United Airlines Magazine, October 2000, Making a Difference – creating a Slicker City,
p.42-46.
4. Time for transport authorities to catch a bus. South African Transport Magazine, December
1999.
5. Minister geared for Moving South Africa action plan. IMIESA, August 2000, p.35.
6. Kingma, R., Public Transport and the municipal engineer. IMIESA August 2000.
7. Green on Local Government, Ministry of Provincial Affairs and Local Government, October
1997.
8. Onsongo W., Is there a Demand for more Civil Engineering Graduates in South Africa?
Civil Engineering Magazine. February 2000, p10.
 APPENDIX A: Transportation Courses of Selected Tertiary Institutions

Course
W Cape GP E Cape KZN USA
Stellen. UP WITS Tech Pta Tech PE Tech UND Natal Tech Cal.Berkely MIT TAMU
Labour Based Road Eng. y
Labour intensive road const. y
Environmental Eng. y y
Flood Hydrology y
Concrete Pavements y y y y y y
Pavement Design y y y y y y y y y
Pavement Materials y y y y y y y y y
Pavement Mgmt y y
Transport Development y
Transport Control y
Transport Economics y y y y y
Public Transport/Transit y y y y y y
Traffic Engineering y y y y y y y y y
Transportation Planning y y y y y y y y y y
Urban Planning and Design y y y y y y
Railway Engineering y y
Air Transportation y y y
Marine Transportation y
Transportation Safety y y y
ITS y y
Transportation Logistics y y
Transportation Management y y y
Geometric Design y y y y y y y y y
Traffic Signals y y y
Transportation Technology y y y y
Traffic Flow Theory y y y y

Y – yes
N - no
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
PROFESSIONAL
K PILLAY

Transportation Planning, Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

P.O. Box 6338, Pretoria, 0001
Phone: 072 219 2136, Fax: 012 328 5137, E-mail: kpillay@gpmc.org.za

Resume of Kollan Pillay

1. A former resident of Verulam, north of Durban.

2. Graduated from Glenhaven Secondary School in Verulam, in 1991.
3. Graduated from University of Natal in 1995.
4. Employed by the National Department of Transport in 1996.
5. Graduated from Texas A&M University 1999.
6. Currently employed with the National Roads Agency in Pretoria.
7. Seconded to the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality for experiential training in Transportation
Planning and Road Construction.
8. Currently functioning as a resident engineer on the Upgrade of Dr Swanepoel Road north of
Pretoria.